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WikiStates:Criteria for speedy deletion
Criteria for speedy deletion specify the limited cases where administrators may delete WikiStates pages or media without discussion. Non-administrators can request speedy deletion by adding an appropriate template (see below). In this context, "speedy" refers to the simple decision-making process, not the length of time since the article was created. This page contains the criteria for speedy deletion and a list of templates that can be used to tag a candidate for speedy deletion. These criteria are worded narrowly, so that in most cases reasonable editors will agree what does and does not meet a given criterion. Where reasonable doubt exists, discussion using another method under the deletion policy should occur instead. If a page has survived a prior deletion discussion, it may not be speedily deleted. Deletion is not required if a page meets these criteria. Before nominating an article for speedy deletion, consider whether it could be improved, reduced to a , merged or redirected elsewhere or be handled with some other action short of deletion. If this is possible, speedy deletion is probably inappropriate. Contributors sometimes create articles over several edits, so try to avoid deleting a page too soon after its creation if it appears incomplete. Users nominating a page for speedy deletion should specify which criteria the page meets and consider notifying the page's creator. Any user who is not the creator of a page may remove a speedy tag from it. The creator may not do this. A creator who disagrees with the speedy deletion should instead add to the page, and explain the rationale on the page's . The list of current candidates for speedy deletion is at Category:Candidates for speedy deletion. Criteria Abbreviations are sometimes used to refer to these criteria. For example, "G12" refers to criterion 12 under general (copyright infringement) and "U1" refers to criterion 1 under user (user request). These abbreviations can be confusing to new users (who are most likely to have created articles that can be speedily deleted) and . A table listing the template(s) for each of these criteria is provided below. General criteria These criteria apply to all s, and are in addition to namespace-specific criteria in following sections. # and , an unsalvageably incoherent page with no meaningful content. This does not include: poor writing, partisan screeds, obscene remarks, vandalism, fictional material, material not in English, badly translated material, implausible theories, or of any sort; some of these, however, may be deleted as vandalism in blatant cases. # Test pages. Testing is permitted in the sandbox and in users' own . # Pure . This includes blatant and obvious hoaxes and misinformation, and redirects created by cleanup from page-move vandalism. # Recreation of deleted material. A copy, by any title, of a page deleted via a , provided the copy is substantially identical to the deleted version and that any changes in the recreated page do not address the reasons for which the material was deleted. This does not apply to content that has been , undeleted via , deleted via , or to speedy deletions (although in that case, the previous speedy criterion, or other speedy criteria, may apply). # Banned user. Pages created by while they were banned, with no substantial edits by others. # Housekeeping. maintenance, such as temporarily deleting a page to , performing uncontroversial , or cleaning up redirects. # Author requests deletion, if requested in good faith, and provided the page's only substantial content was added by its author. If the author the page, this can be taken as a deletion request. # s whose corresponding article does not exist. This excludes any talk page which is useful to the project, and in particular: deletion discussions that are not logged elsewhere, , and talk (such as archives) whose corresponding "top-level" page exists. # Pages that serve no purpose but to disparage their subject or some other entity (e.g., "John Q. Doe is an imbecile"). These are sometimes called " ". This includes a that is entirely negative in tone and unsourced, where there is no version in the history to revert to. Administrators deleting such pages should not quote the content of the page in the deletion summary, and if the page is an article about a living person it should not be restored or recreated by any editor until it meets standards. # Blatant . Pages which exclusively promote some entity and which would need to be fundamentally rewritten to become encyclopedic. Note that simply having a company or product as its subject does not qualify an article for this criterion. Non-criteria The following are not sufficient, by themselves, to justify speedy deletion. * Author deletion requests after others have contributed substantially. If other editors have substantially edited an article (i.e. more than just minor corrections or maintenance tagging), the original author may not request deletion under G7 because the work of others is involved. * Copies that are not copyright violations. If content appears both here and somewhere else (possibly in modified form), consider the possibility that WikiStates' is the original version and the other site copied from us. Alternately, the same author may have written both versions, or the original may be free content. * PNGs/GIFs replaced by JPEGs. JPEG encoding discards information that may be important later. Do not delete the original PNG/GIF files. * Questionable material that is not vandalism. Earnest efforts are never vandalism, so to , do not delete as vandalism unless reasonably certain. Deletion templates In order to alert administrators that a page meets one of the criteria for speedy deletion, place one of the following relevant templates at the top of the page. Please be sure to supply an that mentions that the article is being nominated for speedy deletion. Procedure for administrators Make sure to specify the deletion reason in the deletion summary. Also, in some cases the article's creator should be notified. Before deleting a page, check the to assess whether it would instead be possible to and salvage a previous version. Also: *The initial edit summary may have information about the source of or reason for the article. *The talk page may refer to previous deletion discussions, or have ongoing discussion relevant to including the article. *The page log may have information about previous deletions that could warrant ing the article or keeping it on good reason. *'What links here' may show that the subject of the article is an oft-referred part of the encyclopedia, or may show other similar pages that warrant deletion. For articles that should not be re-created, incoming links in other articles should be removed. See also * WikiStates:Criteria for speedy deletion/Explanations * Category:CSD warning templates * (Grid of warning messages) * Category:Speedy deletion Category:Speedy deletion